1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed in general to instrument clusters for vehicle dashboards and more specifically to optional clusters that may be chosen according to vehicle operator need or desire at any given time.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Typically in a vehicle, an instrument panel is designed to present a particular arrangement of dials, gauges and display screens in a pre-set design. The design is often standard for a vehicle type, while allowing for the addition or substitution of some components if pre-ordered with the vehicle. However, sometimes a single vehicle is used for different purposes. A luxury sport utility vehicle, for example, may be used off-road. A sports car might be used for both racing, even if only in the driver""s imagination, and in situations, such as road trips, demanding the conveniences of a luxury automobile. The different conditions would require that the instrumentation indicate or emphasize different vehicle parameters.
Various examples of prior art devices present movable displays and optional instrumentation. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,070, a single flip-up instrument panel can be pivoted from a position locked and protected in a housing to a position viewable by a vehicle operator. The instrument panel is intended for use with a tractor-type vehicle to prevent tampering with the panel when the vehicle is stored at a public-accessible site. A counter top display device is detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,734. Different advertising cards are displayed in a triangular, manually rotatable frame. Japanese patent application Publication No. 11139182A2 discloses an instrument panel having a single lower part and an upper part selectable from a plurality of designs different in meter type, layout and shape. But the upper part must still be selected during the assembly process. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,159, an electroluminescent display panel overlaps a section of a conventional instrument panel. The electroluminescent display panel displays additional information at various times during operation of the vehicle while the lighted displays of the overlapped section are turned off. It would be advantageous if the vehicle driver could select a particular instrument cluster arrangement to fit the driver""s purpose or the environmental condition at that time, something the prior art references do not suggest.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide multiple instrument clusters in a single vehicle selectable by a vehicle operator according to operator desire or driving conditions.
Another object of this invention is to enable the multiple clusters to use common backlighting and circuitry.
A further object of this invention is to provide a simple, relatively inexpensive device for choosing and implementing the selected instrument cluster.
In carrying out this invention in the illustrative embodiment thereof, multiple instrument panels or clusters are mounted on a support or frame to form a display assembly. The frame is mounted within a vehicle dashboard and is rotatable to align a selected instrument cluster with a viewing surface on the dashboard. A vehicle operator can select between these multiple instrument clusters that come built-in with the vehicle by pressing a marked switch or button on the dashboard. The operator can switch between instrument clusters depending on the operating environment. For examples, the separate clusters could be designed for on-road driving, off-road driving, racing, etc. The frame may be made in a multi-dimensional shape. A shallow v-shape, for instance, would enable two different types of backlit displays. When the driver selects the desired display, the display backlighting will shut off temporarily and the frame will rotate. Once the frame is done rotating, the backlighting will turn back on, showing the new display face. All the displays in the cluster use the same circuit for driving the data, including the backlighting circuitry and the microcontroller, keeping the cost minimal.